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festivals

The popular fiestas, traditions and folklore all enrich the Costa Blanca from north to south and are outstanding for their colour, diversity and stunning nature.

Moros y Cristianos - Moors and Christians

From the Moors and Christians, a popular fiesta that commemorates the struggles between Arabs and Christians, to the equally well known Hogueras de San Juan, the supreme manifestation of the culture of light and fire, every town and village includes its religious or pagan fiestas among its attractions and they are always boisterous and have the streets as their stage.

Whether they are pagan festivals, like the carnivals, or religious, like the patron saint fiestas, the romerías, country processions, or the Holy Week celebrations, the Costa Blanca calendar always has something to celebrate.

Hogueras de San Juan in Alicante

This is Alicante, it's the beginning of summer, and the breeze refreshes the stifling heat of summer and makes the streets cool and welcoming. The barracas (bars set up in the streets) bring a lively sense of fun to the night during the Hogueras de San Juan The festivity starts on the 20th of June, don't miss it! Come to las Hogueras de San Juan!

Experience fully this festivity, feel the welcome of this land and enjoy los castillos, (firework displays), las mascletaes (firecrackers), and the huge effigies that once again are central elements of the festivity and its final triumphal culmination.

Sant Jordi-Moros & Cristianos

Los Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians) are one of the most widespread festivities in the provinces of Alicante and Valencia, and it is the most visually attractive, showing the unique character of the people and their love of play-acting, dressing up in special costumes, music and gunpowder explosions.

The origins of the fight between the followers of the Cross and the crescent moon go way back to the battle of Lepanto, when the enactment was a palace game, that later spread to the streets and squares.

The facts were changed in the interests of local history, and made the patron saint the protagonist of the victory or "miracle". In the inland regions, the taking of the holy figure and the conversion of the Moors form the main argument, whilst in the South, around the town of Alcoi, the battle commemorates part of the Reconquest or the defence against the Berber invasion, although the triumphal celebration is dedicated to St.George.

Misteri d'Elx

The Elche Mystery Play, a lyrical drama dating from the Middle Ages, is the city's most deeply-rooted cultural symbol. In 2001, UNESCO declared it a Masterpiece of World Oral and Intangible Heritage.

The play is performed in the Basilica of Santa María every 14th and 15th August with full dress-rehearsal performances taking place earlier on the 11th,12th and 13th. It narrates the Dormition, Assumption and Coronation in Heaven of the Virgin Mary. The play has survived due to the determination of the citizens of Elche past and present. After the performing of plays in churches was banned by the Council of Trent, Elche obtained a Bull from Pope Urban VIII to keep the play alive. Such has been the determination of the citizens of Elche that the Play is now the last surviving example of this type of drama. The Mystery Play's music, including monody and polyphony, uses Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque melodies. It is performed by a non-professional adult choir and a children's choir whose innocent voices represent the Virgin and the angels.

However, the really distinguishing factor of the Elche Mystery Play is its complex medievally-inspired production, dividing the scenic space into horizontal, worldly space and vertical, aerial space and using aerial equipment that converts the whole into a spectacular experience. A cadafal, or temporary square stage, accessed by an andador, or ramp, is raised in the centre of the Basilica’s transept. This is where most of the action takes place while a false ceiling is installed in the base of the cupola above the stage.

When the Gates of Heaven are opened, a complex piece of stage machinery, the "magrana", firstly lowers an angel bearing a message, followed by a choir of angels to guide the Virgin in her Assumption to the heavens where she will be crowned by God Eternal from a third machine, the Trinitat. At the moment of her coronation a shower of tinsel falls from heaven in what is undoubtedly the most moving moment of the whole Play.